For the second time in two legs, Kiwi skipper Mike Sanderson has been forced
to retire from racing in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 after a tactical
gamble on Team Sanya went badly wrong.

By Kate Laven

1:40PM GMT 19 Dec 2011

Knowing their four year old Volvo Open 70 was slower than the rest of the fleet, Sanderson and Norwegian navigator Aksel Magdahl took the decision to veer off from their easterly path from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi in a bid to gain a few extra miles.

They headed north but in the knowledge that if it went wrong, they would land right in the middle of a tropical storm and could be battered by 50 knot headwinds.

For 24 hours, the gamble paid off and Team Sanya charged to the front of the fleet at speeds that were more than double the others. Overnight, their lead had stretched to 150 miles over second placed Puma but the celebrations proved to be shortlived.

During a sail change, just moments before they were due to tack east, a crewmember looked up and noticed a tension wire attached to the mast had broken loose and was flapping which meant the rigging was at risk of crashing down.

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“We were lucky it all happened in day light,” explained Sanderson, one of the most experienced skippers in the fleet with four races including victory in 2005-06 under his belt.

“At night, we would not have noticed. We would have tacked and the mast would have fallen down.”

“We had broken through the low pressure system and were excited that the breeze looked to be going right which meant there was a secondary low pressure to use to propel us east which would allow us to capitalise on the miles we gained.”

Conditions were hardly challenging with winds of 12-14 knots providing some agreeable racing. Despite the rigging failure, Sanderson has yet to officially give notice of Team Sanya’s retirement to Race HQ but the stricken boat is now heading to Madagascar to make repairs.

“We are gutted,” said Sanderson, who retired from the first leg from Alicante to Cape Town just two days after the start when the boat crashed into a submerged object causing damage and delaminationto the bow.

“This campaign was all about throwing a cat among the pigeons and a 150 mile lead was a pretty big cat among some pretty scared pigeons. It was exactly what we wanted to do and I’m shattered it hasn’t panned out this time.”